YouGov and Microsoft through XBox Live managed to track down previously undecided voters who were watching the debate via their console. While a similar group judged the last debate for Romney, this time they went the other way:

Romney overplayed his hand

Just as clearly as the first debate was a win for Mitt Romney, this debate was a win for Barack Obama – although not as a lop-sided an outcome as the 3 October result was for the Republican.

Romney overdid it here, which seem strange because he could have coasted a little and played safe. But his gung-ho style came across as tetchy in the town hall format, and it rebounded when he couldn't repeat his trick of the last debate of gaming the moderator's patience and taking up every scrap of spare speaking time.

Several times Romney got gently slapped down, up the point when Crowley actually told him to sit down, albeit politely. How that sort of posturing comes across is anyone's guess but predictions that Romney would get rattled and play the ref were accurate.

Obama's gentle needling paid off particularly in the Libya answer, when Romney had obviously come to believe his campaign's own rhetoric that the White House had somehow avoided calling the Benghazi attacks an act of terror. He thought he had Obama trapped; instead, it was Romney who went into the ditch. Romney seemed to flag after that, although his prepared closing remarks were spirited and well oiled.

Obama had a better time of it, pushing back against Romney's coin-clipping and cheese-paring, but probably spent too much time attacking Romney to have made this a rout. He still has no clear, positive answer on the economy and jobs to give. Depressingly, neither candidate has much to say on economics.

This debate was better run than the previous one, and it was better for it, while the range of questions was broader, which hurt Romney and helped Obama. Romney's answers on the likes of gun control, immigration and pay equality didn't even flirt with the questions that were asked. As in the Republican debates, he looked out of his depth.

Yet the gravestone of this debate has Libya marked on it. It was Romney's big opportunity to hit a home run. But like Alex Rodriguez, he couldn't even take a swing tonight.

With further Romney campaign quibbling about how long it took Obama and the White House to call the Benghazi attack and act of terror, there's also this, via Josh Rogin at FP, pointing out that Obama did so explicitly:

But on Sept. 13, at a campaign event in Colorado, Obama again used the phrase "act of terror" and this time tied it directly to the Benghazi attack.

"So what I want all of you to know is that we are going to bring those who killed our fellow Americans to justice. I want people around the world to hear me: To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America," he said.

So we've all had a laugh at the "binders full of women" thing. But it turns out that Mitt Romney wasn't telling the truth about that, either.

Here's the transcript:

Mitt Romney: An important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about, particularly as I was serving as governor of my state, because I had the chance to pull together a cabinet and all the applicants seemed to be men.

And I went to my staff, and I said, "How come all the people for these jobs are all men." They said, "Well, these are the people that have the qualifications." And I said, "Well, gosh, can't we, can't we find some women that are also qualified?"

And so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet.

I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks," and they brought us whole binders full of women.

What actually happened was that in 2002 – prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration – a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.

They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.

I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I've checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I've just presented it is correct – and that Romney's claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.

Mitt Romney's Libya gaffe

The Romney campaign is still maintaining that their man was right when he tried to claim that President Obama did not label the Benghazi attacks as terrorist until two weeks after the event – despite tripping up and bloodying their candidate's nose during the debate.

Here's the back and forth from the debate tonight:

OBAMA: The day after the attack, Governor, I stood in the Rose Garden, and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror. And I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime. And then a few days later, I was there greeting the caskets coming into Andrews Air Force Base and grieving with the families.

And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the secretary of state, our UN ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, Governor, is offensive. That’s not what we do. That’s not what I do as president. That’s not what I do as commander in chief.

CROWLEY: Governor, if you want to reply just quickly to this, please.

ROMNEY: Yeah, I — I certainly do. I certainly do. I — I think it’s interesting the president just said something which is that on the day after the attack, he went in the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror. You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack it was an act of terror? It was not a spontaneous demonstration?

OBAMA: Please proceed.

ROMNEY: Is that what you’re saying?

OBAMA: Please proceed, Governor.

ROMNEY: I — I — I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.

No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.

In the spin room, David Axelrod, Obama's campaign adviser, said: "Tonight (Romney) was cornered and ran out off room. It was clear to the American people he was exposed tonight."

Romney's adviser, Ed Gillespie, said: "The momentum continues for Governor Romney." Asked about Romney's failure to control the debate as he had in Denver, he said: "I don't think it changes the dynamic. This was never about style. It is about substance – jobs – and that has not changed."

Funny how the losing campaign always says the debate was about "substance".

Mitt Romney's trade-war-on-China jabs included a mention of a fake Apple store in China. The Guardian covered this well over a year ago – the store itself is probably long gone, after all the publicity it got – but it seems that while the store itself was dressed up to look a lot like an Apple store, it sold genuine Apple products.

So, duh. I've seen "fake" Apple stores in America if that's the criteria.

Fake Apple stores

In a discussion about American jobs, Mitt Romney said there were "even fake Apple stores in China". He's right, according to this Guardian blog post from last year, although they were selling genuine Apple goods. The BBC later reported that Chinese authorities had moved to close them down.

The Obama team has learned from last week when Romney flooded the Spin Room early, with the Obama team failing to field any _ or at least only a handful – for the first ten minutes.

Tonight, with five minutes before the end of the debate, the Obama team flooded the Spin Room, filling it with blue signs. The Romney team rushed in people, but they left an impression of being harried, turning up late.

Obama pushed back hard at Romney's suggestion that his administration had cut back on offshore oil exploration and oil and gas drilling on public lands – and repeatedly interrupted the Republican contender when he tried to protest.

Obama also took Romney on for accusing the administration of crushing the coal industry. "Not true, governor Romney," the president said repeatedly.

"We've opened up public lands, we're actually drilling more on public lands than the previous president and he was an oil man," Obama said.

Here's the instant response from Ewen MacAskill, at the scene of the debate-crime:

Barack Obama staged a strong comeback in his second showdown with Mitt Romney, with the president describing his Republican opponent as "offensive" in suggesting he was playing politics over Benghazi and portraying him as more extreme than George W Bush on social issues such as women's rights.

The extent of the personal dislike between the two was evident in the second presidential debate, held at Hofstra University, Long Island In one explosive scene, the two, only feet apart, wagging fingers at one another, talking over one another, accusing each other of lying.

Obama more than matched Romney and ended the stronger of the two on the night, leaving the Republican candidate looking flustered at times, particularly over Libya.

The president was animated, confident, clearer, in contrast with Denver. If Obama had produced a performance like this in the first presidential debate in Denver on 3 October, he might not have seen his poll leads overturned and now in a deadheat with Romney nationally and in many swing states. It was not a bad performance by Romney but Obama edged him out on the night.

And another unusual question: gun control, specifically the lack of it.

Obama doesn't have much to say, and neither does Mitt Romney but after that Libya cock-up his brain is mush and he starts going on about two parent families – what? – and the botched Fast & Furious gun-running sting, which is a whole different ballgame and beside the point.

Now Obama is gaming the moderator and getting away with it. How the tempo has changed.

'Binders full of women'

'Look at the transcript'

Oh dear, Romney just shot himself in the foot right there. After Obama makes another play about taking responsibility for the events in Libya, Romney thinks he's got him for claiming he called it terrorism in his Rose Garden address the day after.

Wrong, Mitt Romney, Obama interjects "Look at the transcript," and Candy Crowley backs Obama up: he did call it terrorism. Romney's lower lip actually wobbles a bit there as he stutters, and Obama steps off his stool and ends the question.

Wow, talk about over-playing your hand, Mitt Romney. As Howard Cosell said to Evander Holyfield in the 1984 Olympics: "You must be a broken man."

A question on Libya and the security of the Benghazi consulate, where four American officials were killed, as is well known.

Obama fluffs around the topic but does own up: "I am ultimately responsible for what’s taking place there." Also: "I'm the one who has to greet those coffins when they come home, so you know I mean what I say."

No that's interesting, because the word yesterday was that Hillary Clinton was taking the fall, and what the Romney campaign was expecting, which might explain why Romney can't calibrate his reply.

Eek, Mitt Romney – asked to respond about his crappy "self-deportation" thing, decides to relitigate some old answers he's obviously still fuming about.

Eventually Candy Crowley tells Romney to sit down, but not before Obama gets the first real laugh of the night, when Romney – why? god knows – tells him "to check your pension". Obama deadpans: "My pension's not as big as yours." Zing!

A question for Romney on immigration, and Romney's giving it the standard stump response, including stapling a green card to advanced degrees for foreign nationals.

Not that he actually answered the question, but no one seems to worry about these things any more. They should just dispense with questions and have people stand up and shout "immigration!" or "jobs!" or "Iran!" and let the candidates say what they are going to say anyway.

The question, by the way, was what to do about immigrants who don't have green cards, meaning that they are undocumented. Romney had, I think, nothing to say. Except that – and I'm not making this up – their children could join the military and get citizenship that way.

"I'm not in favour of rounding people up and sending them out of this country," says Romney, which will be news to to Republican primary voters.

Half-time: Fight Night

The extent of hostility between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney exploded into view on the stage at Hofstra University, the two men feet apart, pointing fingers and shouting over one another.

They accused one another of lying, with looks that bordered on contempt. Romney, dispensing with the last vestiges of respect for the office of the president, said: "You will get your chance in a minute. I am speaking." Republicans will love the sight of Romney squaring off against Obama. And Democrats will just as much love Obama squaring off against Romney. But independents might view Romney's behaviour as rude.

Obama is much more animated, up for the fight tonight. He is clear, confrontational, making the case for his economic policies and denouncing Romney's. If he had turned in this performance in Denver, he might not be in such trouble now. But just matching Romney may no longer be enough to stop Romney's poll momentum. He may need a killer line or for Romney to make a gaffe but that has not happened yet.

Oh now here is a great question: what is the difference between you and George Bush, Mitt Romney?

But Romney is getting slightly wound up about not getting the last word on the previous question. "I just want to make sure I got the last answer," he jabbers on.

Some more verbals.

Anything to avoid answering this question, of course, but Romney naturally makes zero of an attempt to answer the question. "President Bush had a very different path for a very different time," says Romney, on ... small businesses? Trade deals? These are the differences. Uh. George Bush didn't sign any trade deals? Crazy talk.

Obama is naturally keen to help out: "Governor, you're the last person to get tough on China," on the trade issue.

But there are some differences between Bush and Romney, Obama notes. "George Bush didn't turn Medicare into a voucher. George Bush embraced comprehensive immigration terms." And so on.

There are differences "but they aren't on economic policy," Obama finishes.

A question on equal pay for women – a first for this debate season – and Mitt Romney talks about how awesome he was in hiring women in Massachusetts. "They brought us whole binders full of women," he relates after he complained that there weren't enough qualified women candidates.

Anyway, the economy will not only be so awesome that everyone will have jobs but all women will get employers offering them all sorts of benefits, but Romney doesn't actually address the issue: the Lily Ledbetter bill that enforces equal pay for women, as Obama points out.

In his reply Obama dives into healthcare as an issue for women in the workforce: "He suggested that employers should make the decsion whether or not women should get contraception through their insurers," Obama says.

Here is Romney on his tax plan, and how it won't be a tax cut for the rich, ok? "The top 5% with continue to pay 60% as they do today," says Romney. Right, and if you cut the overall tax take, then the 60% gets smaller in proportion. Hence: they will get tax cuts, he's just not using the words.

A question about gas prices, specifically about getting them lower. This is something that voters ask about a lot but politicians have trouble answering, since there really isn't much they can do about it.

Now Mitt Romney is blaming "20 or 25 birds" being killed for some legal action against some struggling mom-and-pop oil oligopoly in North Dakota.

And here's the bit where the presidential candidate Mitt Romney promises to make "North America energy independent". Spot that? North America. Because most of America's oil imports are from Mexico and Canada, which happen to both be in North America (yes, Mexico is, look at a map).

As if it makes any difference whether the oil is imported from Canada or Saudi Arabia, to the US current account.

Oooh, Mitt Romney tried to slip in a reply there, but Candy Crowley is no tired old Jim Lehrer, she pushes him gently back in his box and says "You'll get plenty of time later," smiling indulgently as at a small child.

Obama's next up and he mentions the auto bailout opposed by Mitt Romney straight off the bat, so he's already ahead of his dismal performance last time.

And yet ... not sure than banging on about "energy efficient cares" is the right way to win that argument.

Candy Crowley jumps in with a follow up on the long-term unemployed, aimed at Romney, asking how they can be out back to work. Romney ignores this and blathers on about the awfulness of the economy under Obama.

The Huffington Post and the Drudge Report had the same headlines a few minutes ago. Inevitably, they fail to agree on the detail. (Take our word for it, these screen grabs were taken within seconds of each other.)

Drudge debate countdown screen grab.HuffPost: always first with the news.

A final word from the debate spin room, via the Guardian's Ewen MacAskill:

The Romney campaign team, as it did in Denver, is dominating the Spin Room, sending in lots of governors, senators, members of Congress and strategists out to talk to the media. The Obama campaign is less visible, holding most of its people back until after the debate.

I have just been listening to Louisiana governor and Romney surrogate Bobby Jindal talking at great speed and length. The short version: even with the skills of Churchill and Lincoln, Obama would be pushed to defend his record. John Sununu, former governor of New Hampshire and another Romney surrogate, predicted a draw but that may be just part of the traditional ploy of playing down expectations for the candidate.

I have a feeling Sununu meant it. A draw would be good enough for Romney but not good enough for Obama. "I think it will be very informative but not exciting. I do not think the format lends itself to long exchanges. I expect it will end in a draw," Sununu told the Guardian. He added that no doubt both sides – he did not mention if he would be among them, though he probably will – would go out at the end to proclaim victory.

The most exciting part of tonight's debate, as always, is Frank Fahrenkopf of the Commission on Presidential debates telling the audience about their responsibility to democracy by shutting up and remaining shut throughout.

Keeping up with the times, Frank also tells them not to do the Twitter because of the light from the screens and so forth. No word on what to do if audience members have an auction closing on EBay.

You can see all of this if you refresh your page and start up the live video stream because we are showing the lot, thanks to PBS and UStream.

You can also find out what our readers thought were the questions that should be asked in tonight's debate – although it will be a pleasantly tepid day in Hell before issues such as this get raised:

What gives the US the right to carry out long-range assassinations using pilotless drones?

And sadly there's next to no chance this or anything resembling it will get asked:

There has been a huge increase in the number of unaccompanied children, fleeing gang violence in South American countries, and being held in American detention centers after illegally entering the country. What should be done to resolve this?

These children have no right to a court-appointed attorney immediately - which effectively means they have no hope for gaining asylum. Shouldn't this be redressed?

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have made a number of promises during the seemingly endless campaign season – and then at the debates they made some more. Now, see if you can tell their 'I wills' and 'I won'ts' apart!

Here are their strongest promises from the first presidential debate. Find out if you're as politically savvy as you think with our fiendish debate quiz.

It's been said that one of the most dangerous places in America is between Republican congressman Pete King and a TV camera – or any media outlet – and tonight is no exception, as Ewen MacAskill reports from spin city:

The politico showing the most staying power in the spin room is congressman Pete King, chairman of the House committee on homeland security and a near-constant talking head from Capitol Hill. He has been spotted in and around the spin room for about two hours, time enough to be interviewed at least twice by all the journalists present.

He is at the debate as a representative from New York, as a surrogate for Romney and, I suppose, because there are lots of journalists here.

The Guardian asked him if Benghazi is going to come up in the debate. "It has to come up. It has been injected into the foreign policy debate," he said. King claimed to know why the Obama administration had refused for a whole week to accept the attack on the consulate had been terrorist-inspired: "It undercuts the president's narrative," King said.

And what about tonight's debate? King said he expects Obama to do better but added that he had never been a good debater.

We're reaching the crucial one hour and 39 minutes to go stage, and Ewen MacAskill reports from behind the scenes on the surrogate stand-ins in the spin room:

The Obama stand-in during Romney's debate preparation, Senator Rob Portman, put in an apperance in the Spin Room earlier. So the Romney stand-in for Obama's debate preparation, Senator John Kerry, turned up an hour later. The crowd of jostling reporters and camera crews round him was so big I could not wriggle my way into hearing distance.

A US journalist joked that Kerry seemed to be enjoying the biggest crowd he has managed to attract since his failed 2004 run for his presidency. That could change if Obama wins and he makes Kerry his secretary of state. The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, is a rival for the job but her standing has slipped over the Benghazi row.

Jill Stein, the Green party candidate for president, has been arrested after trying to get into the hall of the presidential debate at Hofstra. The Long Island Report reports:

Jill Stein, a Green Party candidate for president, along with her running mate Cheri Honkala, attempted to gain access to the debate hall. Stein was denied entrance to the campus by Hofstra representatives because she did not have credentials. Eventually police barricaded the entrance.

“If you have done the work to get on the ballot, if you are on the ballot and could actually win the electoral college by being on the ballot in enough states, then you deserve to be in the election and you deserve to be heard,” Stein told the police and crowd that gathered to watch her demonstration.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein (right) and vice-presidential candidate Chere Honkala were arrested for attempting to gain access to the debate site at Hofstra University today. Photograph: Brian Cahn/Zuma Press/Corbis

The data suggest, at best, minimal change in each candidate's favorable ratings after the first debate. The lack of change is notable particularly for Obama, whose debate performance was widely panned, suggesting little damage to his image among the electorate, even though the race has tightened a little since then. It is also notable that Romney's favorable ratings did not improve much among voters even though he was widely considered the winner of that debate.

I think it was Lord Balfour who used to say: "Nothing matters very much, and very few things matter at all. Except debates, suckers."

The White House pool reporters – god bless their anonymous toil – send this snippet about the First Lady's guests at tonight's debate:

Sitting tonight with First Lady Michelle Obama, will be New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and US Army Veteran Seth Bodnar.

Seth Bodnar is from Western Pennsylvania. In 2001, Seth graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, as the top-ranked cadet in his class. From 2006 to 2008, Seth served in the 1st Special Forces Group. During that time period, Seth led a 12-man detachment of Green Berets during multiple overseas deployments. In 2008, Seth was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, where he served as the special assistant to the commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq. In 2009, Seth returned to the United States to serve as an economics instructor at West Point. Seth left active duty in 2011 and now works in the private sector.

Nice of Andrew Cuomo to show up. Maybe now he'll shift his ass down to the spin room after the debate and get his hands dirty. That 2016 Democratic presidential primary isn't going to win itself, pretty boy.

Gallup's registered voter trends indicate that Obama has lost ground with voters since the start of the month, most likely reflecting his poorly reviewed performance in the first presidential debate. Gallup research indicates that debates are rarely transformative events in presidential elections, but Denver may ultimately be seen as an exception, given the changes, albeit minor, that ensued in what has been a highly competitive election. Obama must now hope to reverse those with a resounding win of his own in at least one or both of the upcoming debates in New York and Florida.

The Guardian's Ewen MacAskill is, as always, on the ground in Long Island for the debate, because he can't find a chair in the press room. I jest. Here's his latest:

The Spin Room is seeing of a lot of early action. Instead of waiting until after the debate, both teams have learned that when you have a captive audience of 1,000-plus journalists with lots of time on their hands, it is worth putting people out there.

Rob Portman, the Ohio senator who stood in for Obama during Romney's debate rehearsals, while speaking to a group of journalists, seemed to go off message. Instead of talking up expectations that Obama was going to do better, he said the president was short of town-hall debate experience, not having done any in the last four years whereas Romney had done 100. "That was absolutely the wrong spin," Portman said

Thirteen days ago all the talk before the presidential debate was how this was Mitt Romney's last chance and that he needed a big night just to stay in the race. Oh, and debates didn't change anything, anyway.

Less than a fortnight later, and all the talk before the presidential debate is how this is Barack Obama's last chance and how he needs a big night just to stay in the race.

But at least this time everyone agrees that debates do change things.

This time the presidential debate is back at sea level, more or less, even if the pre-debate rhetoric continues to be stratospheric, at Hofstra University in Hemptead, New York.

As last time, the kick-off is 9pm ET – that's 2am for British insomniacs – and once again the New York Yankees may intrude by playing baseball throughout.

The format for tonight is a "town hall" – but don't be fooled. The presidential debate format means this is as much resembles a real town hall meeting as this liveblog resembles a Feuilleton in a 19th century Viennese newspaper.

The real question, though, is which Barack Obama will turn up for the debate? Will it be fiesty Barack's Against The Wall of recent speeches and public appearances? Or will it be D'oh!-bama of last time?